Long-Term Issues
by BigTimeRusher12
Summary: "When I hit thirteen, I started doing drugs and smoking." "I just don't want you turning out how I was when I was younger." Those are two of the lines that Donald says to Emily and Chase in the chapter "Smoking" of "Daughter Troubles". We now know what they MEAN. WHY was Donald getting abused? Find out.


**I DO NOT OWN LAB RATS.**

**Long-Term Issues**

**Donald's POV**

I was standing outside a store. Not just any store. A wine and liquor store. I was thinking whether or not to go inside and get some beer. I _wanted _to because of what my brother did to me. I _didn't _want to because of what I told everyone, especially Emily: I would never drink again. I told my daughter that, and yet, here I am: thinking about drinking again. I couldn't do that to my family. I was worried for Tasha and all the kids. Especially Adam, Bree and Chase. They're bionic, so if they ever start drinking, who knows what it could do to their bionics. Especially Chase's. He's got the most abilities. Who knows what it could do to him. I remember the conversation I had with Emily first.

"_I'm gonna tell you something. Everyone else knows this, but you. When I hit thirteen, I started doing drugs and smoking."_

"_Why?"_

"_Because... I was getting abused."_

_I was shocked. "What? Why?"_

"_Oh, not by my parents. By my brother."_

"_Again, why? Why would your own brother do that to you?"_

"_I don't know. When I was ten and he was eight, I did something and accidentally broke one of his inventions. After I did that, he started yelling at me... and then... he slapped me. He continued doing it every day. It got worse."_

"_Did you tell anyone?"_

"_I couldn't. He said if I did, he'd kill me. I stopped smoking after a couple years, __but continued to drink. I finally stopped when I was seventeen.__ I eventually developed asthma because of my smoking. I don't want you developing asthma like me."_

Then, there's the conversation with Chase.

"_Aw, man! This is my fault!"_

"_What do you mean, Chase?"_

"_I-I–" I stammered and then blurted out, "I did it! The cigarette was mine!"_

"_WHAT?"_

"_Emily's innocent. I did it. I just asked her to hold it for a second while I put my books in my bag when Tasha came to pick us up."_

_He sighed and looked at me, then Tasha and my siblings. "Tasha, will you and the kids go down to the lab? I need to talk to Chase." She took everyone else down to the lab. "Sit down!" I obeyed and was frightened by his tone, as well I should be. "CHASE, WHY?! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS?!"_

"_I-I don't know. I was just stressed out and this kid asked me if I ever smoked. I said no, but I wanted to try it and see how it felt… and it felt pretty good. He gave me a box with more cigarettes in it."_

_Mr. Davenport held his hand out. "Hand them over!" I slowly reached into my pants pocket and gave the box to him. "Chase, I am so disappointed in you."_

"_I know."_

"_And you let my niece take the blame?!"_

"_I know. I'm sorry."_

"_Well, me too. You're grounded for three weeks."_

"_But–!"_

"_No 'buts', mister! Just between you and me, though, what do you have to be stressed about?"_

"_Well, I really like this girl, but don't know how to tell her."_

"_That's _no _excuse for smoking, young man."_

"_I know."_

"_I just don't want you turning out how _I_ was when I was younger."_

"_I won't. I promise."_

Now, you know about the abuse, but you don't know how it _exactly_ was. Here's how it all started.

Flashback

_I was ten and Douglas was eight. We were in our shared room, which also doubled as our "Lab"._

"_Yes! There! It's done!"_

"_What it is, Dougy? What's done?"_

"_My new…" He turned around and held up something. "Hoverboard!" It was neon green with flames._

"_Cool! Can I try it out?"_

"_No! Because you break _a lot _of things."_

"_That's not true. Name _one _thing."_

"_Your surfboard, your snowboard, your skateboard, your roller skates, your ice skates, your dirt bike, crashed _both _our_ _ATVS. Need I say more?"_

"_OK... so maybe I've broken a _few _things, but I stopped. Please? Please? Please? Please? Please? Please? Pleeeeeeeeeeease?"_

_Douglas was getting annoyed. "Alright! Alright! You can try it out."_

"_Yes!" I grabbed my blue helmet from the shelf and put it on. I buckled the strap and Douglas handed me the board._

"_If _anything_ happens to my board, though," he got into my face and said, "you're _dead!_" _

_I nodded and ran out the door_. _I hopped on the board and took off down the street. "Woo hoo! This is so much fun!" I gained some air and did some spins and flips. Suddenly, I lost control of the board and I got flung off. I landed in the grass face first. I looked up and the board flipped and crashed into some trashcans. "Oh no!" I ran while saying, "No! No! No! No! No!" When I ran up, the board was broken in half. "Oh no! No! No! No! No! No! Douglas is gonna kill me!"_

_Back at our house, I slowly made my way to our room. "Hey, Donny. How'd the ride go?"_

"_Douglas, you know how I said I wouldn't break your board and sometimes things happen that you don't _expect_ to happen?"_

_Douglas clenched his teeth in anger. "What are you trying to say?"_

"_Well…" I pulled the broken board from behind my back and handed it to him. _

"_My new hoverboard." He had tears in his eyes. "Donny!"_

"_I'm sorry, Dougy. I guess I lost control."_

"_You _guess?!_"_

"_OK. So I _did_ lose control. Don't kill me!" _

"_Oh, I'm not gonna kill you." He slowly walked to me. "I've got something _else_ in store for you."_

"_W-what?"_

"_This."_

_SLAP!_

"_Ow!" I held my cheek. "What'd you do that for?"_

"_For breaking my hoverboard!" _

_SLAP!_

"_Ow! What was _that _for?"_

"_For breaking my other stuff!" I took off my helmet and set in on the shelf. "You may be _older _than me, but I'm _stronger._" He walked up to me. "Listen to me, Donny: if you thought what I did to you _just now_ was bad, wait until _tomorrow._" He went out of the room and I gulped. _

_That night at dinner, Mom asked us how our day was. I didn't want to tell her that I broke Douglas' hoverboard he made, so I didn't. Douglas glared at me. He picked an apple from the fruit basket in the middle of the table and asked, "Hey, Donny. You want an apple? Catch." He threw the apple and it hit me in the head. _

"_Ow!" _

"_Douglas!" Mom scolded him as she examined me. _

"_Sorry, Mom. He was meant to catch it."_

"_Donald, are you OK, honey?"_

"_Yes. I'm fine. Douglas is right. I _was_ supposed to catch it." _

_After school the next day, Douglas told me he had a surprise for me. I thought it was going to be a _good _surprise, but after what happened yesterday, I'm not so sure. He told me to come to our room, so I did. When I entered, he had some razors on the table. "W-hat are the razors for?" I had a pretty good idea, though. _

"_You're about to find out. Sit down." I obeyed and did as told._

"_Now," he said as he picked up a razor, "we're gonna have a little fun."_

_I gulped and he turned my arm around so that the vein side of my wrist was showing. He slid the razor down my wrist. "Ow! What are you doing?! You're hurting me!"_

"_Teaching you a lesson!" _

_He cut deeper and I had tears forming in my eyes. I tried so hard not to cry, but it was hard. "What lesson?!"_

"_About breaking my stuff!" He started cutting my other wrist._

"_Ow! Ow! Ow! OK! I learned my lesson! I'll never break your stuff again!"_

"_Ha! I love seeing you cry! Alright, I'm done with you today. You're free to go." I ran out of the room and into the bathroom to rinse my wrists. Douglas walked by. "Baby! Can't handle some little cuts?" _

_I sniffled. "Little? You cut my wrists deep. I'm bleeding!"_

_Douglas said before he walked away, "Serves you right." That left me in tears._

_Every day, it got worse and worse. From slapping, to punching, to kicking, to cutting, to whipping, to _burning,_ and then all at once. At school, people keep asking me what happened, and I come up with lies like: I fell down the stairs, or I ran into a door, or I accidentally cut myself on a knife while cooking. _

_One day when I was thirteen, I bought some beer from the store on my way home from school. I went in our room and sat on my bed. Luckily, no one was home. Mom was shopping and Douglas was at his guitar lesson. It was only me_ _in the house. I opened the can and held it up. The smell was awful, but I took a sip. It was awful tasting too, but after a couple sips, I got used to it. Within minutes, the can was gone. I opened up my second can and said, "Thanks, Douglas!" With that said, I drank that one down as fast as I could, but also as slow as I could because I didn't want to get sick. Or did I? I just want this pain from Douglas to stop. This is the only way I can cope with it. I don't know what's worse: the abuse, or the emotional pain that comes with it… along with the physical pain, of course. I just feel like I'm doing the right thing by drinking… or rather _starting to drink._ I opened my third beer—my last one. Too bad, because they're pretty good—and waited a few seconds. Before I drank it down, I said, "This is because of you, Douglas!" Within minutes, it was gone. After I did that, I went outside and put the beer cans in the trash so no one would see I've been drinking. I feel so good about myself right now. I went back in the house and to my room. I sat on my bed, thinking. Thinking about what just happened. I think I handled it very well. I plan on doing the same thing tomorrow. _

_It was 6:00 at night when Douglas came home. He came in and I tensed up. "Relax, Donny. I'm not gonna do anything to you tonight." I sighed in relief. "But tomorrow's another day." I gulped. Douglas wanted to be a smart aleck and asked, "How was school? It was brutal for _me._"_

"_You? _You? _People keep asking me what happened, and I have to _lie to _keep people from finding out the truth!"_

_He stood up and slowly approached me. "Are you talking _back_ to me?"_

"_I… I… I-I didn't m-mean t-to. I-It's just…"_

_SLAP!_

"_You know what?! I wasn't gonna torture you tonight, but you gave me no choice!" _

"_You always have a choice!" I expected another slap across the face, but it never came. _

"_Come with me!" He grabbed my arm tightly and dragged me to the kitchen. _

"_W-What are you gonna do?"_

_He ignored me, though and turned on one of the burners to the stove. He grabbed my hand and placed it on top of the burner. I let out a cry of pain and Douglas smiled. "I'm loving this!" _

"_Why?! Why are you doing this?!"_

_SLAP!_

_I should've known that was coming. I know better than to talk back to him. It wasn't just a slap, though. He pushed me to the floor and I received a few kicks to the stomach. After that, I got up and slowly walked to our room. I thought, "_What'd I do to deserve this?_"_

_The next day after school, I stopped by the liquor store again and bought three beers and a pack of cigarettes. That's right. In addition to drinking, I'm going to smoke too. Normally I wouldn't do _any _of this, but it's all Douglas' fault. If Douglas wants me gone, I'll do it myself. Slowly, but I'll do it. I went to the kitchen and rummaged through the drawers until I found what I was looking for… a cigarette lighter. I got it out and ran to my room. When there, I shut the door and sat on my bed. I grabbed a cigarette out of the box and lit it. I put it up to my mouth, inhaled a tiny bit, and blew out a puff of smoke, causing me to cough. This was my first time smoking, anyway. I _know _I shouldn't do this. My mom told me to never drink or smoke, but I _had _to do this. I _wanted _to do this. It felt so good. I'm not going back now. This is how I can escape all this. _

_A couple years later, when I was 15, my mom found out that I was drinking and smoking. She questioned why, but I didn't respond. "Donald Ryan Davenport! Tell me why you're doing this! I wanna know why and I wanna know now!" _

_Douglas looked at me and I looked back at him. The look he was giving me sent chills down my spine. "Douglas, did you know about this?!"_

"_No I didn't." Douglas came up and whispered to me, "You better not rat me out!" He stepped back to his spot._

"_Donald!" _

"_I… I…" I started to hyperventilate and breathe heavy. I looked at Douglas and mouthed the words, 'I'm sorry'. _

"_Donald?"_

"_OK! YOU WANNA KNOW _WHY _I'VE BEEN DOING DRUGS AND SMOKING?! BECAUSE OF HIM!" I pointed to my brother. "HE'S BEEN ABUSING ME SINCE I WAS TEN! I ACCIDENTALLY BROKE HIS HOVERBOARD HE MADE! I APOLOGIZED, BUT HE SLAPPED ME FOR BREAKING IT! THAT'S WHEN THE WHOLE ABUSE STARTED! IT GOT WORSE EVERY DAY! FROM SLAPPING, TO KICKING, TO PUNCHING, TO CUTTING, TO WHIIPPING, TO BURNING! EVERY DAY AT SCHOOL, PEOPLE ASKED ME WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING AND I HAD TO _LIE _TO KEEP DOUGLAS' SECRET! ONE DAY AFTER SCHOOL, I BOUGHT SOME BEER. I DRANK THREE CANS OF IT, AND I FELT GOOD! AFTER A WHILE, I DECIDED TO GET SOME CIGARETTES ALONG WITH THE BEER. EVERYTHING I DID FELT SO GOOD FOR ME, THAT I… I… I DON'T KNOW. I GUESS THAT WAS THE _WRONG _WAY TO HANDLE IT, BUT IT MADE ME FEEL SO GOOD." _

_Mom was fuming! I turned to my brother and I could see the fire in his eyes. "Donald, go to your room. I need to speak to Douglas." I nodded. As I walked to my room, I smiled. I knew that if Mom told Douglas to stop, it _would _happen. He's always been scared of her. "Douglas, why would you abuse Donald? Why would you _do_ that to your brother?!"_

"_He started it! He broke my hoverboard!"_

"_Douglas. I'm sure it was an accident. Still, that's _no_ excuse for what you did. You're grounded for a month!"_

"_But Mom!"_

"_I don't wanna hear it, Douglas. What I _do wanna hear _is that you're going to stop abusing Donald!"_

"_But–!"_

"_Douglas! Now!"_

"_OK, fine. I'll stop!"_

"_Good boy. Now, send Donald out, please." _

_Douglas came in and said, "Well, Donny, thanks to you, I'm grounded. By the way, Mom wants to see you." I nodded and went out._

_My mom patted her lap and I sat on it. "OK, Donald. I want you to be honest with me. Why didn't you tell me Douglas was doing that?"_

"_B-Because if I did, he said he'd _kill_ me. I am so sorry, Mom. I… I know I should've told you, but… I didn't want you to be mad at us."_

"_Oh, honey." She enveloped me in a hug. "I'm not mad at you about the abuse. I'm mad at Douglas for that to you. What I _am _mad at you for is doing drugs. That wasn't the right thing to do. You know better than that." _

"_I know. I sorry, Mom. I… I just..." _

_I cried and buried my face in my mom's chest. She cradled me and stroked my hair. "It's OK, Donald. It's OK. It's OK. He's gonna stop."_

"_Really?"_

"_That's what he said. I also told him to stop. When I tell him to do something, he does it… even if he doesn't want to."_

"_That's because we're scared of you when you yell at us. We do our stuff when you tell us so you _don't _yell at us."_

"_I'm glad you do." She rubbed my back. "That's why I yell at you when you don't do as you're told. I want what's best for you and Douglas."_

_She grabbed my chin and titled my head up so I was looking at her. "I want you to stop doing drugs, OK? It doesn't solve anything and it's not good for you."_

_I sniffled and wiped my eyes with my sleeve. "O-OK." _

_She kissed my head and said, "Good boy. You can go now."_

_What my mom didn't know was that I lied. Well, _partially lied. _I stopped_ smoking, _after a week, but I continued to _drink. _I started doing drugs at thirteen and I stopped at seventeen._ _So… in total, I've been doing this for four years. One day when I seventeen, my mom took me to a rehab center. I had to go there every day for three months. After the three months were up and I got released, I was better. I didn't even want to _think _about drinking. On the drive home, Mom said, "I am _so _proud of you, Donald. Douglas will be proud of you too." I opened my mouth to say something, but she cut me off. "I know you may not think it because of all the things that happened, but trust me, he will."_

"_Yeah. I guess."_

"_He will."_

"_Yeah." I turned my head and looked out the window. I muttered to myself, "Yeah. Of course he will."_

_When we got home, I went to my room. Mom gave us our own rooms a couple months ago. I plopped down on my bed and laid down. Douglas appeared came in. "Hey, Donny."_

"_Hey."_

_He sat on my bed with me. "Look, I wanna apologize."_

"_What?"_

"_I wanna apologize for abusing you all these years. You broke my hoverboard by accident, and apologized… but I wouldn't listen. I just let my anger get the best of me. I didn't mean to do that to you. I meant it in the beginning, but when you said that you were doing drugs because of me, I… I regretted what I did to you. I didn't want you _gone. I just _wanted to torture you… and I guess I did a pretty good job. The point is, I'm _so_ sorry for doing that to you. Will you forgive me?"_

"_I guess."_

"_You _guess?"

_I stood up. "What do you expect me to say, Douglas?! That… That I forgive you?! I will _never _forgive you! You are rotten! You scarred me physically and emotionally! You are really rotten… and that won't change." I stormed out of my room._

End of Flashback

I thought about the day Douglas apologized to me, and I said I would never forgive him. That memory got burned into my brain. Ever since Douglas started living with us, I thought it would change things, but I'm not sure. It _kind of_ changed things. He's _a little_ closer to me. He stuck to his word because he's done abusing me… and besides, he had help in the past. When I told my family what happened, the kids wanted to find Douglas and kill him. He left all the bad stuff he did behind him and the family took to him, especially Leo. 

Douglas was running down the street when he spotted me. He ran toward me, calling my name. "Donny! Donny!"

I looked up and saw my brother running to me. "Donny!" He ran up to me. "There you are. I've been looking all over for you." I just looked at him and then lowered my head to hide my gaze. "Come on, Donny. Talk to me. Why are you here at–" Douglas looked up at the store sign and back at me. "–a wine and liquor store? Are you thinking about drinking again?"

"No. Maybe. I don't know."

"Donny, listen to me. You are better than this. I know what I did to you was wrong and extreme, and you drank because of it, but I stopped… and you stopped. Don't start again, OK? Drinking solves _nothing._"

"Alright. I won't drink anymore. You have my word."

"Great. Let's go home." He put his arm around my shoulder and I did the same thing.

When we got home, everyone was on the couch. Adam, Bree, Chase, Leo and Emily were watching TV and Tasha was reading. She stood up and hugged me. "Hi, honey."

"Hi."

"I was so worried." She let go and said, "You've been gone almost all day. Where were you? We sent Douglas to get you."

"I… I… I was–"

"I found him in the park. He was upset about something and was crying, but I found him and made him feel better." He patted my back.

I turned to him and mouthed the words, 'Thank you'. Douglas smiled.

Tasha asked, "Are you OK, Donald?"

"Yeah. I'm fine now."

"Good."

"Great. I'm just gonna go upstairs." Tasha nodded and I went upstairs. I went to mine and Tasha's room and sat on the bed.

Douglas appeared in the doorway after a few minutes. "Hey, Donny."

"Hey, Dougy. I just wanna say thank you."

"For what?" Douglas walked over and sat by me.

"For covering for me. For covering up where I us."

He rubbed my back. "No problem. You're my brother and I love you."

"Thanks. I have a question, though."

He stopped rubbing my back. "What?"

"Why did you do all that in the first place?"

"I… I don't know why. I guess I was just… jealous."

"Jealous? Of me?" He slowly nodded. "Why?"

"Because… you're inventions were always better than mine. They were perfect. I just wanted to make at least one… _perfect _invention. I _did_, but you broke it."

"Douglas, I'm _so _sorry I broke your hoverboard."

"Eh, it's OK. You didn't mean to."

"And I didn't mean what I said to you. You're not rotten. You're the best brother I've ever had."

"You're the best brother _I've _ever had. Hey, I'm just glad that we're back to being brothers."

"Me too."

We hugged and he kissed my head. "I love you, Donny."

"I love you too, Dougy." We laid down and fell asleep together, arms around each other.

**No one's POV**

Leo came up five minutes later. "Big D, dinner's ready." He tried not to laugh at the sight before him. He took out his phone and snapped some pictures. "Perfect blackmail material." He whispered, "Sleep tight guys."

Leo ran down the stairs and Bree said, "Whoa, Leo! Where's the fire?"

"I just thought that you guys might like to see something." He waved his phone around.

"What?" asked Chase.

"Oh, nothing. Just Big D and Douglas cuddling."

"What?" asked Bree. "No way!"

"See for yourself." He showed them the picture.

Bree and Chase tried not to laugh. Bree said, "Aww! That's so sweet."

Adam said, "So Mr. Davenport _does _have a sweet side."

"Aww! They're so cute together," said Tasha.

"Aww, Daddy. I love it!"

An hour later, Donald and Douglas woke up and noticed they were in each other's arms. They separated and blushed. Donald cleared his throat a couple times. "That was a… nice nap."

"Um… yeah. It was."

"Yeah. Well, let's go see if dinner's ready." Douglas stood up and they both exited to go downstairs.

Everyone was at the table eating and Leo asked, "So… how was your nap, Big D?"

"It was– How'd you know I took a nap?"

"Oh, _that. _I have _this_ on my phone." He showed Donald the picture of him and Douglas cuddling together.

He blushed. "Oh."

Tasha said, "Donald, I find nothing wrong with cuddling with your brother. You two were cute, all snuggled up together."

"Thanks, but it was a one-time thing."

"What are you talking about, Donny? We used to do it all the time."

"Really, Douglas? Really?"

Douglas said, "Well, I don't know about _you, _but_ I _liked it"

"Fine! I'll admit that I liked it too."

"Umm… OK." Donald rolled his eyes at his brother and went back to eating.


End file.
